THE WIZ Screens Tonight at St. Nicholas Park as Part of Harlem Week Festivities

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the stage play, The Wiz. Join ImageNation, Harlem Week, Harlem Pride and Global Network of Black Pride as they celebrate this cultural milestone with a screening of the celebrated film adaptation of the award-winning play.

The screening will take place tonight, August 16, from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at St. Nicholas Park, Saint Nicholas Avenue & West 135th Street, New York, NY 10030. Free! For more information, contact ImageNation by calling 212-340-1874 or emailing info@imagenation.us.

The Wiz is a 1978 American musical adventure film produced in collaboration between Motown Productions and Universal Pictures, and released by Universal on October 24, 1978. An urbanized retelling of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz featuring an entirely African-American cast, The Wiz was adapted from the 1975 Broadway musical of the same name. The film follows the adventures of Dorothy, a shy Harlem, New York, schoolteacher who finds herself magically transported to the Land of Oz, which resembles a fantasy version of New York City. Befriended by a Scarecrow, a Tin Man, and a Cowardly Lion, she travels through the land to seek an audience with the mysterious Wiz, whom they say has the power to take her home.

Produced by Rob Cohen and directed by Sidney Lumet, The Wiz stars Diana Ross, Michael Jackson (in his first film), Nipsey Russell, Ted Ross, Mabel King, Theresa Merritt, Thelma Carpenter, Lena Horne, and Richard Pryor. The film's story was reworked from William F. Brown's Broadway libretto by Joel Schumacher, and Quincy Jones supervised the adaptation of Charlie Smalls and Luther Vandross's songs for film. A handful of new songs, written by Jones and the songwriting team of Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson, were added for the film version. Upon its original theatrical release, The Wiz was a critical and commercial failure, and marked the end of the resurgence of African-American films that began with the blaxploitation movement of the 1970s. The film received four Academy Award nominations for Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Original Music Score and Best Cinematography.